


in the city where the sun don't set

by odst



Series: yellow rose of oni clad in black (& her dumb ai) [2]
Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, Red vs. Blue
Genre: Gen, after the events of halo five, cortana!alpha, halo installation, halo ring, master chief!texas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 08:56:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17639702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/odst/pseuds/odst
Summary: “Is it so wrong for me to want to save you?”. . .“You know they couldn’t have.”





	1. Chapter 1

Tex knows it’s time to shut Alpha down. It’s just her & him now, Blue Team hovering a little ways behind her, Fireteam Osiris behind them.  
Alpha’s on his knees in front of her, gaze downcast, his newfound physical form still off putting to her, she doesn’t like it. It’s _wrong._  
Tex kneels next to him & puts a hand on his shoulder. “Is it so wrong for me to want to save you?” She whispers, quiet to keep her team from hearing.  
“We’ve been through so much. I wanted to _bring you home._ Dr. Church & Dr. Halsey could’ve fixed you. . .”  
“You know they couldn’t have.” Alpha speaks up finally, but he doesn’t lift his head.  
“I don’t want to leave you here on this installation to rot.”  
“It’d be foolish to disregard your directives, Allison.”  
“I’ve already done so. I went AWOL for you, Leo.”  
The AI looks up, but he’s not looking at the spartan. He stares past her, at the spartans behind her. “You should hurry this up. They’re looking impatient.”  
Tex sighs. “Can you open a portal? Back to the inner colonies?”  
“Anything for you, yellow rose.” She doesn’t bitch at him for calling her that, this time. Maybe because it’s their last interaction together.  
The AI zones out for what feels like forever, seemingly lifeless. He doesn’t pretend to breathe, while focused on using the Forerunner tech to manipulate a portal. Tex can’t help but try to commit as much detail to memory, because she’s gonna fucking miss him. He’s lived in her head for years, only torn from her when duty called, & now they’re saying goodbye. Forever. No coming back from rampancy, no coming back from the dead.  
‘Chief & her AI’ no longer, just ‘Chief.’  
“Done,” Alpha said, immediately becoming more alive, & she stands up & turns, seeing the dark blue portal open behind her team & Osiris.  
Tex readies herself, takes a deep breath & tightens her grip on her gun- denting the metal in the process (rendering her gun useless, if she needed it). She curses under her breath, straightens up, & puts on her commander voice. “Alright team, time to head back to the _Infinity._ ”  
Her team starts heading through, but one lingers, Kanen-127. She hesitates, body language unsure, but she steels herself, growing confident the longer she stays. “Chief, I’ll wait for you. & Osiris,” Kanen gestures to the other Spartan squad, still standing across from the portal.  
“Fireteam Osiris,” Kanen addresses the other squad, & the leader, Ronan-609 stares for a moment, before he raises his hand to gesture for his team to go.  
“Osiris, I’ll see you on the other side,” He orders, & his squad walks through the portal.  
It’s as if 127 & 609 _forget_ Alpha & Chief are even there, because they fall into a comfortable silence, before Ronan speaks up.  
“Okay nerd, let’s see who’s better, a IV or a II?”  
Kanen crosses her arms across her chest, & her tone is confident. “You think a IV has _anything_ on a II?”  
“Whoever gets through the portal last is the inferior Spartan,” He calls over his shoulder as he starts running towards the portal.  
“You’re on!” Kanen yells as she rises to the challenge, charging after the Spartan IV.  
They both tumble through the portal, & Tex’s feet feel like lead. It’s not real, & it’s just how overwhelmed she feels at the fact she’s leaving _Leonard_ behind, & she almost thinks she’s hallucinating the hand that slips around her wrist, halting her.  
She turns her head, & locks eyes with his, desperation written into his blue face. “Please.”  
She simply stares, but she doesn’t remove her wrist from his grip, which is enough of a sign for him. “ _Stay, Allison._ ”  
Tex hesitates. She needs to _leave_ , return to the _Infinity_. She doesn’t want to.

For once, Allison-117 picks herself. She picks what she wants, desire over duty. For once, Allison stays.


	2. we'll run to the future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alpha winces. “I. . . I was your friend. Maybe more than that, & I fucked up."  
> Alpha doesn’t seem to notice her hesitance, or how her hand unconsciously gravitates to her hip- where, if she had been in her armor, she’d have a magnum against her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i forgot to post it as being uncompleted, but it's completed now!

Tex might’ve stayed, but that didn’t mean she forgave him. Alpha had killed countless people in his awakening of the Guardians, & she wasn’t going to accept any excuses.  
They stayed apart for a while, on different ends of the installation. Alpha was building something in his half, working out how exactly to maximize his use of the Forerunner tech, & Tex explored, committing different paths to memory, free climbing the cliffs of the structure when she felt bored. One of the monitors still at the installation had been redirected by Alpha when he’d ‘taken up the Mantle of Responsibility’, & often brought her food, & answered any questions she had. It was like her companion, at times, during the times when she wanted to go to Alpha but knew she wouldn’t, because he hadn’t atoned for anything he’d done.  
She wasn’t sure how long it had been, but Alpha came slinking around, reeking of guilt.  
He skirted around her for about a week before she got fed up & cornered him. “Enough. What is it, Alpha?”  
He fidgets, & then waves his hand, a heap of metal flying up before forging itself into dark armor. It’s clearly inspired by the MJOLNIR she’s clad in, but inherently different, unique.  
“I made you something. . .”  
Tex eyes it suspiciously, & her helmet is off for once, & Alpha reads her gaze, clearing his throat & continuing.  
“It’s armor. I studied, uh, Forerunner armor, & with the help of some of what was left, I fashioned this for you.”  
“What’s the catch?”  
Alpha winces. “I. . . I was your friend. Maybe more than that, & I fucked up. I’ve spent hours trying to come up with an apology. . .”  
Tex walks up to him, & roughly pokes him in the chest with an ungloved finger. Surprise written across his face, she doesn’t wait for him to say anything. “You don’t need to apologize to _me._ You killed countless people activating the guardians, recklessly, for what? To reclaim a mantle that shouldn’t have existed in the first place? To enforce a peace that was instilled by fear? You don’t have to apologize. You need to make up for it.”  
She turns around, & walks away.

It’s maybe a month later that Alpha ghosts around her again, & they reconvene. Tex keeps her mouth shut, letting Alpha talk if he really wants to.  
“I wanted to ask if you could come to one of the central towers, uh, with me.”  
“What’s in it for me?”  
“Oh, c’mon, Tex,” Alpha sighs & raises a hand to rub his eyes.  
“No. I’m not just going with you. I said all I needed to last time we spoke.” Her arms are crossed, he notes.  
“Let’s say it’s _related_ to what we talked about before, & it’s imperative that you come with me.”  
Tex makes a face that he can’t quite decipher, but after a moment, curtly nods, & takes the lead.

At the tower, Alpha pulls up some screens, & with a sinking feeling in her stomach, Tex recognizes them as the very same he once used to track her down, the very same he used to senselessly _kill_.  
Alpha doesn’t seem to notice her hesitance, or how her hand unconsciously gravitates to her hip- where, if she had been in her armor, she’d have a magnum against her.  
Alpha looks over his shoulder & smiles at her as the feeds finally pull up, & Tex thinks she’s going to scream when she sees the Forerunner creatures chasing after some people. Alpha’s expression twists when he sees hers, & realizes. “No! No, they’re protectors. They help farm, so the people don’t have to. I sent them off with seeds to a little colony nearby,” He says, & Tex isn’t sure she believes him until she actually sees some of the robots in action, planting.  
She still feels on alert, considering what she had gotten used to before she ended up stuck on the installation with the AI.  
“What exactly led you to do. . . this?” She asks warily, & Alpha’s eyes light up.  
“You see, I took what you said to heart. This was a little colony far beyond the fringes of the UNSC, & they were struggling, so I took it upon myself to help them. I’ve been learning their names, there’s 6000 people on this colony alone, which is very small! The seeds I sent with my agricolae were all alien crops that tended to grow in short periods of time, in order to feed the budding colony.”  
Alpha keeps going on, & Tex zones out slightly, more focused on _how_ he’s saying it, his body language, microexpressions. She wants to know if he’s lying.  
He doesn’t appear to be, & she relaxes slowly, turning her attention to the feeds. The feeds were focused on a few children playing, & when one of them tumbles, a smile creeps on her face as the other children swarm to pick up their fallen comrade.  
Alpha’s standing at her side, & glances over when she smiles. “I’ve missed your smile,” He says softly, & Tex keeps her eyes trained on the feeds.  
His hand - intentionally or unintentionally she wasn’t quite sure- brushes against hers, & she takes it, lacing their fingers together without a thought.

-

Tex crosses her arms & shifts all her weight to one foot. "Are you ready to go? Or are there still diagnostics to be run? You know, we've been working on this for years &-" She trails off when she realizes he's not paying attention.  
"Church."  
Church gives her a lopsided smile. "What did you say? I keep getting lost in your eyes."  
"Okay Leonard, c'mon. Let's go, aren't you ready to get back into action?"  
"You know I don't mind what we do as long as you're around," Church bats his eyes, & Tex rolls her own.  
"We're leaving. Unless you want to stay alone?" Tex turns around to board the ship, something _they_ made, crafted from pieces of the Halo ring itself.  
"I'm coming, I'm coming."  
He takes a moment to appreciate how she looks in the armor he’d first made for her. Church hadn’t quite liked how the Forerunner armor particularly looked, how it was based on rates. He’d fashioned her in something that looked more of the Prometheans out of any Forerunner tech. The metal was dark, like her MJOLNIR, but rather than the titanium nano-tech bodysuit, there was blue energy shifting between the plates. It seemed that Tex had taken to it, preferring it to her MJOLNIR, ultimately.  
It’d better suit them for the journey they were to go on now, however. They were leaving the ring, & the system. They were leaving the galaxy.  
During his isolation on the ring, & even before then, when he’d first been connected to the domain, Church had been exposed to many, many inconsistencies. Delta halo & the _meddlers_ that had disturbed it, the Forerunners that left the galaxy after firing the array. . . There were too many things that he wanted to know.  
He’d approached Tex with the offer of them both going, & she agreed. They were going to find some answers.

Church boarded the ship.


End file.
